Archive for February, 2018

Eventually we’ll get to see the Eagles real 2017 Super Bowl ring, but for those that can’t wait, an unauthorized version is available now:

I’m not affiliated with the seller, or the tweet, or any replica championship rings, but the tweet shown above caught my eye this week.

It shows a pretty good design of an Eagles 2017 Super Bowl ring and it appears like it’s for sale; but I don’t have any details and frankly, when the real Super Bowl ring is released, who is going to want a version that does not resemble the actual real one?

And as I often ask, how do the teams, and leagues allow these unauthorized championship rings to be sold?

I have no idea how large this offered Super Bowl ring is, and can we even call it a replica if it’s truly not replicating the actual championship ring?

Since this will be the Eagles first Super Bowl winning ring, look for it (thanks to NFL policy) of being smaller than some of the huge Patriots, Broncos and Packers rings we’ve seen over the last decade.

Even though the Eagles Super Bowl LII (why do we still use Roman numbers) will be smaller than recent Super Bowl rings, my gut feeling is that it will contain more bling than the example shown above.

Please remember as always, I buy championship rings (as long as they are real). If you would like to sell your championship ring in complete privacy, please contact me.

This Bulls 1996-1997 Championship Ring, currently for sale on eBay, is 100% authentic and not priced in the stratosphere:

I am not affiliated with this championship ring, or the seller, I’m just here to blog about the world of championship rings.

This has to be one of the most unusual championship rings ever produced, and that’s probably a good thing – certainly a step up from the 60′s-80′s Balfour NBA championship rings that never seemed to change in size or design.

The seller is accurate – this Bulls ring for sale (shown above) is the same size, and 14K solid gold configuration as the player’s version.

While $25,000 is probably too high a price, it is in the realm of possibility, considering how rare a player-sized Bulls ring for sale is.

The seller is accepting lower offers, so this is a realistic opportunity to acquire a special championship ring.

The only thing I don’t like is that this championship ring appears to be lacking the wood presentation box. The box was given to front office employees, but somehow it looks like this championship ring will be sold without it.

Please remember as always, I buy championship rings. If you would like to sell your championship ring in complete privacy, please contact me.

Sometimes, when it’s to the seller’s advantage, they appear to be an expert in Championship rings. Other times, they are naive. Often, these two vastly different characteristics, appear in the same selling process when it comes to championship rings.

The Pawn Shop owner claimed to have an authentic Super Bowl front office ring from 1991. One of the first things the Pawn Shop owner said to me was “I know my Tiffany markings, and this Super Bowl ring is 100% real.”

I thought to myself, “sounds good to me”, this guy knows what he’s talking about. Keep in mind that Tiffany made that 1991 Super Bowl ring for the Redskins, not Jostens, and also note that I would not just take someone’s word for it. I would want to examine the championship ring carefully before buying it.

Next, he said, that the diamonds were not real, but the ring was made of solid gold.

I thought that perhaps being a front-office ring, it’s possible that this staff member did not get a championship ring with real diamonds.

So far so good…

Then the Pawn Shop owner, who seemed to know a lot about championship rings, and knew those Tiffany markings were real (according to him), got dumb in a hurry…..

When I asked, he told me the side of the Super Bowl ring had “Rypien” on the side. And then I knew we had a big problem. Mark Rypien was the Redskins quarterback in that game and the MVP of the Super Bowl that year.

The pawn shop owner claimed that the Redskins must have given out front office rings with the name “Rypien” on them. I asked him: if he worked in the front office, would he want his Super Bowl ring to have someone else’s name on it?

Next, the thought entered my mind, perhaps it was a Tiffany and Company Super Bowl ring sample. So that came up in our conversation. I told the Pawn Shop owner that I had never, ever, seen a Tiffany & Company salesman sample for any championship ring and I am pretty sure other than the NFL, and Pro Football Hall of fame having one for display purposes, they just don’t exist.

And if they do exist, thanks to falling salesman sample ring prices, his Super Bowl ring, if authentic would be worth $2,000.00. If $2,000 seems low, check out recent auctions for Salesman Sample championship rings. And remember, the auction house gets 10%-30% of that $2,000.00.

I don’t think the Pawn Shop owner was pleased with my estimate and I stressed to him, I doubted the Super Bowl ring he had was authentic. But then, in a final desperate move, the seller got even dumber – claiming it had to be real because it was made of solid gold.

Guess he doesn’t look at championship rings for sale on eBay very often. Luckily for me, I spend a lot of time researching these things and he wasn’t going to fool me and pull the wool over my eyes.

Please remember as always, I buy championship rings, as long as they are real. If you would like sell your championship ring in complete privacy, please contact me.

Jostens’s new “family rings” could wind up taking football fans and wanna-be championship ring collectors for a bad ride:

For those collectors and fans who want a glamorous Super Bowl ring, Jostens new “family rings”, as shown above could easily be mistaken for a player-sized championship ring.

While the Patriots Super Bowl LI ring from a year ago weighs in around 100 grams, the family ring is 78 grams and contains about 23 less diamonds.

This may not seem like a big difference, as the family ring shown above is scaled very well, has a tremendous amount of bling, and it’s huge. However, collectors in the past have shown when you examine the selling prices, that smaller, non-player size rings, take an enormous hit on the secondary market as most collectors want the player-sized versions.

Last week’s sale of the Tom Brady family ring, proved that collectors want championship rings associated with the “greatest players of all time” and are willing to dish out a fortune to acquire such a rare and desired item.

However, moving forward, fans and championship ring collectors who don’t do research or understand what they are buying from font office employees, coaches, or players no one has ever heard of, may wind up way-over-paying for a championship ring they think is player size, when in fact it’s not.

The Broncos and Patriots appear to have both offered Super Bowl rings, scaled down, that look terrific and very closely resemble player size championship rings. I do know that employees, coaches and players were offered Patriot family rings for around $10,000 each and you can expect some of them will be hitting the market place in the next few years. The photo above of a Jostens brochure shows how nice the family ring is.

So be careful out there, and don’t get taken advantage of; do your research!

Please remember as always, I buy championship rings. If you would like to sell your championship ring in complete privacy, please contact me.

While I often site examples of falling championship ring prices in the hobby place, here are three sales that did well:

A few days ago we covered the incredible sale of the Tom Brady family Super Bowl ring – ending up at $344,927.50. Congratulations again to Goldin Auctions, the consigner and the purchaser of the Brady ring.

I mentioned in that blog that other championship rings in that very same auction still showed that the selling prices of championship rings were not quite where they were a few year earlier.

Here’s some additional information about the three football championship rings from the same auction that did well.

The AFL championship ring from 1964 (top left) was an AFL championship ring from way before the NFL-AFL merger. Usually AFL player rings before the Super Bowl era sell for $5,000 to $10,000 . This one, belonging to Head Coach Lou Saban sold for a hair under $16,000.00 (final price shown above).

In researching today’s blog I discovered that Lou Saban could possibly be a distant cousin to football legend Nick Saban but that’s speculation by Lou Saban’s family. Lou Saban is not a house-hold name and the selling price of this championship ring probably was not pushed higher by Nick Saban being the original recipient of the ring.

The two Kansas City Chief championship rings shown above both did well too in the auction (their final prices realized are shown above as well). While the description does state that scout Lloyd Wells is in the “Hall of Fame” it turns out he is in the AFL hall of fame and probably not the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I mention this because Lloyd Wells status probably did not push the selling prices higher; so that makes the final prices of these two championship rings even more impressive.

Please remember as always, I buy championship rings. If you would like to sell your championship ring in complete privacy, please contact me.